The City Lord of Heaven’s Sun had barely finished roaring before he went calm again, unbelievably fast, and muttered doubtfully to himself, “Strange. How would that old fellow in the City of Stars know where in the Phantom Beast Ruins that turtle-spawned, rabbit-raised, deserves-a-thousand-cuts Dark Nether Ghost King was…”
Ye Tianxie was about to speak up and explain when the City Lord let out another blast of a roar that frightened the words straight back down Ye Tianxie’s throat. “The Golden Dragon Seal! Holy shit! It’s the Golden Dragon Seal — damn it all, this came from the Lost Emperor!!”
Ye Tianxie glanced up and found that there did seem to be a gold-glittering seal stamped at the foot of the letter — presumably the “Golden Dragon Seal” the City Lord was hollering about, the mark of the highest authority on the Lost Continent.
The City Lord of Heaven’s Sun spun around and bellowed at Ye Tianxie, “This is an urgent letter forwarded from the City of the Lost! Why didn’t you say so sooner!! I thought it was more of that old undying wretch in the City of Stars and his stale nonsense!!”
His ordinary speaking voice was already about as loud as a normal man roaring, and now that he really was roaring… and roaring straight at him… Ye Tianxie felt as if a string of firecrackers had gone off beside his ear. Both ears rang, and it was all he could do not to fall back eight or ten steps. He held himself steady and said, very calmly, “You didn’t ask.”
“You couldn’t have told me yourself without being asked!!”
“You didn’t let me.”
“You, you, you, you, you…” The City Lord could not get his breath back and nearly choked on it. Then he bellowed again, beside himself. “I haven’t got time to deal with you now, lad… There was a commotion from the Phantom Beast Ruins yesterday, so that turtle-spawned, rabbit-raised, deserves-a-thousand-cuts Dark Nether Ghost King must be about to attack my City of Heaven’s Sun. If he comes for us, what the hell is my City of Heaven’s Sun going to do… Somebody get in here!!”
“City Lord, calm down first. The Dark Nether Ghost King isn’t in the Phantom Beast Ruins any more, as a matter of fact.” Ye Tianxie took a step back, putting a safe distance between himself and the City Lord, and only then spoke.
“Not there any more?” The City Lord closed the distance in one step, dragging back all the space Ye Tianxie had gone to such trouble to open, and the two of them were left staring eye to eye. “You, you, you — what do you mean? The Lost Emperor’s letter says perfectly clearly that the Dark Nether Ghost King is inside the Phantom Beast Ruins!!”
“He certainly was until yesterday. But after dusk he was not there any longer — he was driven off.” Ye Tianxie pulled his face back a few inches and said it seriously.
The City Lord’s eyes bulged. “Is that true? How would a lad like you know? Why should I believe you?”
His mouth was saying he did not believe it, but his eyes were nothing short of desperate — plainly he wanted the Dark Nether Ghost King to have run as far as possible. Any one of the Eight Demon Kings was more than the Twelve Sages could beat in single combat, and they were of Divine Mystery grade. The strongest guardian the City of Heaven’s Sun had was no better than high-grade Heaven-Severing. If the Dark Nether Ghost King really did reach the City of Heaven’s Sun, the safer course would be to pack his bedroll and get out fast.
“You’ve surely already sent someone to look at what happened at the Phantom Beast Ruins yesterday, City Lord… and you must know those are the marks of a fight. That’s right — somebody was fighting the Dark Nether Ghost King, and it was the Phantom Beast race’s barrier sealing the fight in that kept it from reaching the City of Heaven’s Sun. Think about it. If the Dark Nether Ghost King had won… he was hiding in there in the first place because he was afraid the Twelve Sages would find him, and now not only has his hiding place been wrecked like that, it’s certain to have drawn other people’s attention. Do you think he’d still be hiding there? And on the other hand, if he lost, then he’s certainly fled for his life, which makes it even less likely he’s there… So after yesterday’s fight, the Dark Nether Ghost King is definitely not in the Phantom Beast Ruins any more. He should be a long way off. Isn’t that so, City Lord?” Ye Tianxie explained it unhurriedly.
While Ye Tianxie was talking, the City Lord listened at first with his eyes bulging, and then began to nod along quite naturally, the tension going out of his face. The news from the City of the Lost had given him such a start that half his soul had jumped out of him. Now, hearing him lay it out with such reason and such evidence — an argument that was simply “flawless” — and thinking back to the wretched state inside the Phantom Beast Ruins’ barrier yesterday, the cold sweat he had just broken into vanished on the spot, and his heart settled.
“Hahahaha… hahahaha… young man. Well said, very well said. Since you put it that way, I can set my mind at rest, hahahaha… hahahaha…” All the pressure gone in an instant, the City Lord began slapping Ye Tianxie on the shoulder and laughing like a man in a fit.
-10,
-10,
-10,
-10,
-10…
The City Lord’s strength was not of the ordinary kind. He slapped until Ye Tianxie was baring his teeth and red damage figures were floating up off his head without a break. Ye Tianxie fought down the urge to chop this mentally unsound City Lord’s hand off, gritted his teeth, and bore it… since NPCs in a game world are all to be treated nicely and never offended.
“Mm… lad, I suddenly find you look rather agreeable to me. What did you say your name was?” The City Lord had finally stopped tormenting Ye Tianxie, and in an excellent mood he spoke with an expression that could pass for pleasant.
“Xietian.”
“Oh… good name. Ah, that reminds me — how do you know the Dark Nether Ghost King had a fight with somebody yesterday? Did you see it?” Doubt filled the City Lord’s face again.
“I saw it.”
“Really? Then which hero drove that turtle-spawned, rabbit-raised, deserves-a-thousand-cuts Dark Nether Ghost King off? Was it the Ice-Blue Magic God of the City of the Lost? Or Wuming, the foremost expert, who has no fixed abode? Or…”
“The one who drove the Dark Nether Ghost King off… is standing in front of you.” Ye Tianxie straightened his posture and said it with a straight face.
The world went quiet all at once. The City Lord’s gaze fixed on Ye Tianxie’s face and stayed there a full five seconds. Then he let out a laugh like a volcano going off. “Oh hahahahaha… lad, you aren’t trying to tell me that person was you? Hahahaha… lad, that’s the funniest joke I’ve heard all day. You, driving off the Dark Nether Ghost King… with that scrawny little frame of yours, never mind him, I could poke you to death with one finger a few hundred times over… hahahaha…”
In the face of the City Lord’s wild laughter, Ye Tianxie unhurriedly took out a black square tablet — the Dark Nether Ghost King’s Demon King token — and waved it in front of the man’s eyes. “This ought to be proof enough.”
Scare you to death… scare you to death… that’ll teach you to laugh!! Ye Tianxie said it viciously, to himself.
Sure enough, the City Lord’s laughter stopped. Those brass-bell eyes fixed on the Demon King token and stared… and went on staring… Then he looked up and asked, out of nowhere, “This token fell off the Dark Nether Ghost King? You picked it up after you beat him?”
Ye Tianxie nodded.
The City Lord’s expression was very strange. Not shock, not the exaggerated laughter — he gave Ye Tianxie an unusually composed look and said, “So the Dark Nether Ghost King really was driven off by you… Never would have guessed it. You’re that impressive, lad… Mm, as it happens I have a quest here that only a strong man could finish. Do you want to try it?”
Doubt rose in Ye Tianxie. This bearded fellow had gotten as worked up over reading a letter as if somebody had stuck a knife in his backside, and now, at the sight of a Demon King token, he was suddenly steady and unruffled. It would be strange if there were nothing fishy about it. He asked, feeling his way, “What quest?”
“Mm… south of my City of Heaven’s Sun, and farther south again, there’s a terrible place called the Inferno of Lava. You could say it’s the hottest spot on the whole Lost Continent, and only the strongest of the strong can go near it. Most of the heat here comes from there too… Only, my City of Heaven’s Sun was never as scorching in the past as it is now. This heat now is entirely because the Fire Spirits of the Inferno of Lava are agitated…” The City Lord said it with a sigh.
“Fire Spirits?”
“Powerful fire elements are packed close together inside the Inferno of Lava, and over a long enough time the ones gathered there develop a spirit-nature of their own — which is to say, Spirits of Fire. The Spirits of Fire were friendly to begin with, but pure fire elements are the least able to bear corrosion of any kind… when the demonic energy leaking out of the Tower of Fate reached this place, the first thing it affected was the Fire Spirits. Their consciousness is too fragile; even faint demonic energy is enough to make them lose control of themselves, and turn agitated… and agitated Fire Spirits make the fire elements far more active…” The City Lord sighed once, then went on. “That is the lesser part of it. What worries people more is that some of the Fire Spirits have already begun to leave the Inferno of Lava, setting foot in the forests, even in human territory, and starting one blaze after another… Ah! Xietian, since you could beat the Dark Nether Ghost King, dealing with Fire Spirits — dangerous, but exceptionally fragile — ought to be nothing at all to you. Could you go south for me and destroy a thousand Fire Spirits? I think that would bring the temperature of my City of Heaven’s Sun down noticeably.”
“Ding… The City Lord of Heaven’s Sun has entrusted you with going to the edge of the Inferno of Lava and destroying 1,000 Fire Spirits. Quest attribute: random. Quest time limit: three months. Quest reward: unknown. Quest penalty: none… Special notice: the Inferno of Lava is an extremely dangerous place for you as you are now. You are advised to abandon or decline this quest. Do you accept?”
Ye Tianxie: “……”
The Inferno of Lava. This was not the first time Ye Tianxie had heard the name. He had known about the place as far back as the novice village, because the “Heavenly Sky Fruit” in Yuan Que’s hands had come out of there.
Looking at the City Lord’s expression now, and thinking back to how he had reacted before… and on top of that a System prompt that actually went out of its way to advise declining the quest — Ye Tianxie caught the faint smell of a plot.
There was definitely something wrong here.
“All right… then I’ll go and wipe out a thousand Fire Spirits for you, City Lord.” Ye Tianxie chose to accept, unhurried about it.
The City Lord of Heaven’s Sun broke into a delighted smile. “Wonderful. Xietian, why don’t you set off right now? I’ll wait for good news from you… Oh, hot weather makes a man sleepy. I’ll go and have a nap, so I won’t see you off myself.”
The City Lord yawned and turned away… and in that instant a sly, sinister smile spread over his face. You beat the Dark Nether Ghost King, lad? Go tell that to the devil! That Demon King token of yours was either picked up somewhere or else you made it yourself… You dare play games with me? I’ll see you buried… buried all the way back to your grandmother’s house.
Ye Tianxie gave the City Lord a thoughtful look and was about to leave when a man came hurrying in, sweat pouring off him, and said in a rush, “City Lord… that Red Goat… Red Goat really has turned up again, but she runs far too fast, and we… we didn’t catch her again…”
“What!!” The City Lord spun around with a blast of a roar and pointed at the man’s nose, cursing him up and down. “You let Red Goat get away again… that’s the eighth time!! A pack of good-for-nothings… Agh! What are you standing there for! Go and find her, now! If you can’t catch Red Goat and get me the gourd off her to repair my Seven-Colored Dusk, don’t any of you ever come back!!”
“Ah… yes, yes!” The man backed out trembling.
The gourd off Red Goat? Ye Tianxie, one foot already over the threshold, stopped where he stood.
(End of Chapter 257)